TreeClan 1: Rising Threat
by Fire231
Summary: In a new territory, TreeClan settles in, at first, it all seems good, but Amberpool, the Clan's medicine cat, has received an omen from LightClan.
1. Prologue

The sun was going down. It had been little over two moons since they've come down to the new territory. Goldenstar, an orange tabby, padded onto a boulder from which he could oversee the entire camp. They still needed a name for the rock, and if it didn't come to the Clan soon they'd be stuck with _Gathering-boulder_. The camp was still a work in progress, the nursery was set up, using several sticks and small logs to create the shell, they had added leaves on top to insulate it. The elder's den wasn't quite ready, having only the sticks and logs set up, and the apprentice's den lacked half of its protective leaves. But the warrrior's den was perhaps the furthest from being completed, its only protection against the weather were the logs. This was TreeClan, they belonged in the forest. Even if the old forest was savaged by fire, this forest would be their home for moons to come, and they would make the best of it. Nothing could stop them from living here, not badgers, not foxes, not even DarkClan.

"Goldenstar!" A cat meowed from behind him, padding onto the rock, as if to test its stability.

"No, Amberpool, I haven't got a name for the boulder, I think it'll be stuck with _Gathering-boulder_._"_ He responded coolly. He twitched his tail in annoyance, it was the seventh time the medicine cat had come asking for a name!

The small brownish-pelted tom turned to face Goldenstar and twitched his tail. "That's not what I have to talk about. It's more important!" He meowed importantly, then added somberly, "The fate of TreeClan depends on it."

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**AN:** Hi! So I've deleted all my old stories, and created this new one, it's intended to be longer and better!  
**PS: **Warriors is not my intellectual property, all the cats in here may occasionally have the same name - that is an accidental coincidence.


	2. Chapter 1

Goldenstar took Amberpool into his cave. LeafClan's leader's den had been created out of a small cave behind the Gathering-boulder, it was large enough to fit around four cats, and had a small entrance which was protected by a sparing amount of recently picked thorns stuck into the minor faults in it. The layout of the entrance protected it both from the cold and rushing intruders.

Inside the den, it was darker, as though it was nighttime. Although this problem was not as intense during daylight, when it was just a bit darker than outside. Goldenstar sat down and slowly moved his tail.  
"So then, Amberpool, what is it you are saying about the fate of LeafClan?" He asked, curious.

Amberpool shifted his paws, was the orange tabby challenging him? No. He couldn't be, he was the medicine cat after all, Goldenstar had to believe him!  
"I've received a message from LightClan." He meowed valiantly, waiting a few more moments before continuing, "They've told me in the form of a dream-omen that LeafClan is in danger of being destroyed by an evil force." _I'm not sure what evil force, but I'll do my best to find out!_ He silently promised to Goldenstar and LeafClan.

Goldenstar nodded. If Amberpool's dream-omen was right, the clan could be facing imminent destruction by evil cats, badgers, foxes, or worse… DarkClan itself!  
"We will not tell the Clan about this until we are more certain of what is to come. We do not want to instill fear amongst our clanmates." He meowed thoughtfully.

Amberpool nodded and dipped his head, showing himself out of the Leader's den. He padded down the snaky path that led up to the Gathering-boulder and leader's den, the cats below were sharing tongues and eating prey. _They have no idea of what's going to happen_. He thought darkly, but his dark thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of a cheerful cat behind him.

"Amberpool!" A young she-cat named Willowfoot padded up to him, gleaming with a squirrel in her jaws, he could scent the sheer joy in her pelt and he felt terrible for knowing something she didn't, something that kept him from feeling joy at the moment. However, he knew that if he was not careful in his response, the Clan would know something was wrong.

"Greetings, Willowfoot." he meowed with as much joy as he could possibly muster. He felt uneasy as he did so, it was as though he had begun spinning a web of lies around himself and his clanmates.


	3. Chapter 2

Amberpool stood there awkwardly, he should head back to the medicine den to check on the progress of Birchclaw, but he didn't want to leave Willowfoot alone. The small smoky she-cat had a small scar on her tail from her time as an apprentice, during battle training one of the other 'paws had forgotten to keep his claws sheathed. This had led Amberpool, at the time Amberpaw, to be tested on minor injuries by his former mentor.

"I can't eat this whole thing, do you want to share?" Willowfoot asked, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

"Yes sure, I don't have anything more important to do right now anyways." He responded calmly.

When Willowfoot and Amberpool finished eating the squirrel. As Amberpool looked around, he remembered about Birchclaw and meowed urgently, "I forgot to check up on Birchclaw!" Amberpool was aware of Willowfoot's gaze following him towards the medicine den. When he stepped in he found no sign of Birchclaw. Amberpool checked frantically, from the small pool of water, to the crevices used to store all herbs, to where the bundling willow leaves grew outside the cave from a powerful and grand willow. There was no sign of the light brown tabby. How could he have let him get away? Then he remembered: the tabby wasn't here at sunup, or at sun-high, not even at sunset when he left to warn the leader of the terrible danger LeafClan may face.

He scanned the clearing, perhaps he was amongst his clanmates, sharing his tongues? There was Goldenstar, Yellowheart, the sandy she-cat was the mate of Goldenstar, and Mousepaw, a grey tabby tom. There was Willowfoot, alone. And there were others, but no sign of Birchclaw. Noticing the moon was rising high into the sky, and the gathered cats were heading off into their dens, Amberpool decided he'd look for him in the morning. _He's injured, he won't get far without someone to help him_. He thought.

Amberpool woke up to a cat prodding him, "Hey! Wake up!" meowed the cat, "It's me, Willowfoot!"

"What is so important that you need to wake me up in the middle of the night?" He asked, then added, "Have you seen any sign of Birchclaw?"

Willowfoot looked down, "No I haven't. I was hoping you could come into the forest with me… I couldn't sleep well." She meowed.

He paused for a second, evaluating the situation, this would be a good chance to find some trace of Birchclaw's whereabouts. He nodded and followed her out of the den. Then he stopped. The birch tree! It was the only area in the camp without light hitting it! But the moon was almost at its highest! His eyes widened, near the birch tree, there was a claw-shaped slice of light beaming down. It was a sign from LightClan. "Willowfoot… we're going to need some more cats" he meowed, glaring at the birch tree.

Willowfoot looked puzzled, "I thought it was just us two?" she meowed, then added, "What's with the birch tree? Is that why we'll be needing more cats? I'll go get Goldenstar."

Amberpool nodded, the area around the birch tree was perfectly well lit, but the birch tree was as dark as it could be, and there was a claw-shaped slice of moonlight beaming down on the bark. He thought for a moment, somewhere around sun-high, LightClan sent him a sign LeafClan was in danger, and now they'd sent another sign. Could it mean that Birchclaw was a bad cat, that he is the danger LightClan was warning them about? A voice interrupted his thoughts.

"What's going on, Amberpool? What's this Willowfoot tells me about a black bir-" Goldenstar stopped himself, obviously staring at the birch tree. "The danger… is Birchclaw isn't it?" he meowed, realising what the sign meant, he looked at Amberpool to make sure he was reading the sign correctly.

He looked down, how hadn't he seen it earlier, the tom always spoke of battle and control when he was in the medicine den! It was an obvious indicator that he was up to something, now the question was what. "I'm sorry Goldenstar, I'm afraid I don't know what he's up to, but the claw-shape on the birch tree is an obvious sign of the danger we face now."

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**AN**: Constructive criticism is always helpful, if you think something here needs fixing, tell me! Also, I'm always trying to get each chapter around 2x as long as the previous one.


	4. Chapter 3

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below the Gathering-rock for a clan meeting!" Goldenstar, an orange tabby, yowled from atop the Gathering-rock. Slowly cats came out of their dens and gathered below it. Amberpool woke up, the yowl gained extra volume inside the medicine den, which had stone walls. He stretched and padded outside, staying away from his birch tree. Willowfoot padded out of the quarter-built warrior's den, looking just as sleep-deprived as the other warriors, but energetic nonetheless. "Last night, Amberpool received an omen, this omen was of a warrior gone rogue. That warrior is Birchclaw." Goldenstar paused momentarily, letting the whispers and hisses die out, "It is of the highest importance that no cats leave the camp by themselves, any cat found doing so will be severely punished." He dismissed the clan and went back into his den.

"I'm so tired!" Willowfoot complained from beside Amberpool, making him jump. "Do you have anything to help?"

Amberpool paused, could he spare any poppy seeds? Of course he could, soon there would be more around to collect. And Willowfoot seemed too tired to do any of her warrior duties. Either way, having someone else in the medicine den was always an interesting event in his opinion. "I have some poppy seeds, wait inside." He meowed as commandingly as he could mew at her.

"It's strange though, I've never seen that kind of thing happen" Willowfoot meowed from inside the den, "It's surprising though – Goldenstar's take on it. I mean I've never heard him demand all cats travel in twos. What about you? On the journey you're making to the Lit-water tonight, you don't have any apprentice to take with you!" She meowed. After she finished speaking, a small silver apprentice, Mousepaw came into the den, staring at them.

"What? Have you hurt yourself?" Amberpool questioned the apprentice, staring back. The apprentice stared for a few more seconds, then bounded away. "'paws." Amberpool complained. They always seemed to want to come into the medicine den, until they were hurt – then they just wanted to leave. "I'll ask Goldenstar if I can take a warrior with me I guess." He shrugged.

Yellowfur prepared to pounce on a mouse, when a dark cat flew and landed in front of her, startling the mouse. "Hey!" That was mine!" She hissed.

"And this is ClawClan territory!" The dark tom hissed back.

"I haven't crossed the LeafClan scent line! And there are only loners in the area around them!" She meowed angrily. Goldenstar hopped out of a bush nearby, puzzled as to what was going on, what was _ClawClan_? He'd never heard of it.

"Well the new scent line goes here, Goldenstar." Meowed a silver Bengal with several battlescars.

"Birchclaw! What are you talking about?!" Goldenstar meowed, staring at him.

The cat unsheathed his claws, "It's Birch_star_ now. And get off our territory. You have until sunhigh tomorrow to put your scent line at the new border."

Goldenstar had had enough, "Let's go." He meowed to Yellowfur.

When did Birchclaw become a leader, had LightClan approved his nine lives? They'd sent two omens telling them he was a danger, surely they couldn't have granted him nine lives! And the other tom, with a nearly pitch-black pelt, he hadn't come from LeafClan, which would mean he was a loner from around the territory. Were they uniting under the leadership of Birchstar to attempt to take back their territory, the territory they'd all agreed to concede to LeafClan? Could that be what LightClan was warning them about, an imminent rebellion from the loners? Or was it worse than that…

Goldenstar had told the clan about the border encounter, it seemed as though the new clan wanted to aggressively take LeafClan territory. They had no way of having a medicine cat, since no loners in the area had LightClan warrior ancestors, this meant they'd find one a different way… Goldenstar told Amberpool that if he wanted to go to the lit-pool, he'd have to take a warrior with him, now it was nearly sundown and he hadn't picked one. But it was obvious that Willowfoot wanted to be the warrior that came with him. Deciding he had no other cat in mind for the task, he got up and padded outside the medicine den, searching for Willowfoot.

Scanning the clearing, he noticed the usual cats at their usual spots, except for Willowfoot. She wasn't outside. _Inside_ _the warriors den_. He decided. Amberpool arrived to the warriors den, after swiftly navigating a horde of cats, he stepped in, finding her sitting in her nest. "Willowfoot, I need you to come with me to the lit-pool, we'll be leaving soon." He meowed, then turned to leave. He had the two traveling herb bundles wrapped in old birch leaves, since he didn't dare pick leaves from the birch tree quite yet. While it was daylight outside, the birch tree's claw-mark of moonlight was substituted with an identical claw-shape of shade.

The warrior padded into the medicine den, ready to leave for the lit-pool, she purred, "Where are the bitter herbs?" When Amberpool pointed towards the bundles of herbs, wrapped in old birch leaves, she remarked, "Still avoiding the birch tree, then?"

He nodded, the birch tree's mark had faded away by sunup, but at sun-high, it'd reappeared as a shaded spot. "The mark disappeared, but then it came back at the exact same spot." He remarked, before adding quickly, "We should get going soon, or we'll be getting back here at sun-high tomorrow."

Together they got up, after consuming their bundles of herbs, Amberpool put away the leaves and headed out, bidding his farewell to the clan leader, the two set off towards the lit-pool, it would usually be a simple trek, but now he had to worry about loners attacking him. At least he had Willowfoot.


	5. Chapter 4

The two cats padded to the edge of LeafClan territory, they stopped and waited a few moments. "Are you ready?" Amberpool asked.

"About as ready as I can be" Willowfoot responded calmly. Amberpool nodded, he stepped over the scent-line and continued along the trail with Willowfoot beside him, pelts occasionally brushing.  
The sky was clear, she could see all the stars of silverpelt. It's so beautiful without the trees getting in the way! She pondered. Since the LeafClan camp was in a small clearing, it wasn't difficult to see the stars of silverpelt, but hardly any cats saw it from the hilltop of the lit-pool. Amberpool interrupted her thoughts.

"Wait here" He meowed before heading towards the pool. It was a bright body of water, the reflection of the moon on it illuminated the small stony area around the pool. The water was nice and cool. And the stone around it was refreshingly cool as well. But there was hardly any cover. Coming to the lit-pool in leaf-bare would be like hunting in the open on a chilly leaf-bare day. As his muzzle touched the water, Amberpool fell asleep.

His eyes opened in a small clearing, it was almost identical to the camp. It was the camp! The birch tree didn't have a claw-mark on it. But yet the ghostly cats around it seemed terribly sad. Had something happened to Goldenstar? He headed towards the medicine den. Surely a ghost version of himself would be treating any wounds that had happened. As he came up to the entrance he stopped.

"He didn't leave any apprentice to take over his duties, we don't know what to do with herbs!" It was Goldenstar. "Why did he leave, didn't he know his clan needed him?" He wailed in a mixture of anger, sadness… and the feeling of betrayal.

Amberpool opened his eyes, he was back at the lit-pool, and Willowfoot was right where he left her. What if something happened at LeafClan while he wasn't there? He had to find out immediately. "We're going back." He meowed.

Willowfoot simply nodded and followed him.

Amberpool padded into the camp, using the entrance, the only spot around the camp that wasn't covered with thorns and brambles. It was barely wide enough to fit a warrior and his apprentice, let alone fit a medicine cat and a warrior. They'd decided to enter one after the other, to prevent any unnecessary ideas from flowing into cats' brains.

He scanned the clearing, there weren't any signs of something bad happening. Perhaps LightClan sent him a sign of what's to come? Or were they warning him about something different?

Willowfoot scanned the clearing, all cats were in small groups as usual, sharing tongues with their friends. She had no friends, except for Amberpool. But he was a medicine cat, she had no hope of anything but a friendship. No matter how hard she tried, she knew that Amberpool would stick to the code. _Unless… she tried something different, something he wouldn't be expecting_. Yes. That would work, if she did it at the right pace.

Amberpool nodded, "I'll be in the medicine den, yowl if you need anything." For a split second, Willowfoot had thought he'd read her thoughts. She nodded as well and padded away towards the warrior's den to get some rest.

As sundown descended upon the clan's camp, Willowfoot left the warrior's den and headed for the fresh-kill pile. At the same time, Amberpool came out of the medicine den and headed towards it. She picked up her pace, determined to get to the pile first. In response, Amberpool sped up his pace, also determined to get to the pile, which was now composed of two small mice. Because they'd both returned exhausted from their journey, they'd slept all the way from sunup to sunset. Now they had to pay the price of getting the scrawny pickings. _Probably Mousepaw's catch_. She speculated, the small apprentice was getting gradually better at catching prey, but he was always unlucky and caught the scrawny prey. Amberpool and Willowfoot arrived at the pile simultaneously. Amberpool quickly examined the squirrel and mouse.

"This is hardly enough to feed one cat…" He mused, lifting the mouse with one of his forepaws. "Well it's better than nothing, I guess." He concluded, blinking. Then he headed back towards the medicine den.

Willowfoot nodded, she looked at the squirrel. Reluctantly she took it and padded back to the warriors den. The sound of cats hissing made her stop, she turned around and saw the mouse laying on the ground, Amberpool several tail-lengths away, was crouched, staring at it in fear. It had twitched, and now it was on the ground, its stomach about to burst.

"Oh LightClan! Why me?!" He was whispering, "I haven't done anything wrong! Not loyal?! Break the code? No!" The mouse stopped moving completely. Amberpool bolted for the medicine den, in a heartbeat, he was already inside it. Goldenstar jumped down from the Gathering-rock, landing squarely on his paws a fox-length from Willowfoot.

"What happened? Why is there a mouse laying there?" He asked, angling his ears towards the mouse, but looking directly at Willowfoot.

"Amberpo-" She began, only to be interrupted by the sound of hissing. Two toms entered the clearing. It was Birchstar and his deputy, Dark Heart.

"What do you want, Birchstar?" Goldenstar meowed, clearly holding in his anger.

Hostility filled the air, "We only want to speak to your medicine cat, we need him to train our own." Dark Heart, a jet-black tom with several scars meowed defensively. "We promise not to bring him any harm."

"I won't go alone!" Amberpool protested. He didn't like the idea of Goldenstar agreeing to send his only medicine cat out to help a hostile clan, "I need a warrior with me, LightClan told me so when I went to the lit-pool! If I don't, I will be in danger"!

Goldenstar twitched his tail, his golden pelt shining in the small amount of sunlight falling on it. "Alright then," He began, turning to face Birchstar and Dark Heart, "Amberpool will help you, but on one condition: he keeps one of our warriors with him. At all times."

Birchstar nodded, "It is decided then, we will be expecting them at sunup tomorrow." The two ClawClan toms departed the LeafClan camp.

"Amberpool, you will be under the careful guard of…" Goldenstar paused, thinking, he had to pick a warrior Amberpool trusted fully, "Willowfur." He finished.

Amberpool couldn't sleep. He knew Willowfur would try her best, but he also knew that she hadn't appeared in his vision. Except it was leaf-bare! He remembered, it had been leaf-bare in his vision, not greenleaf! His stream of hopeful thoughts was interrupted by Willowfur's entrance into his den.

"This should be an interesting experience." She meowed quietly, as though not to disturb any other cat. Except he was the only other cat in the medicine den. "Could you come out into the forest with me, please?" She added, so quietly he had trouble hearing her clearly. Why was she being so secretive? There was no need for secrecy, surely?

They both left the camp, it was a clear night with a gentle, cool breeze. The perfect weather for night hunting. Except Amberpool didn't hunt. Not for prey at least. His efforts were more focused on finding the herbs he'd need before leaf-bare. "You know there are only two possible reasons for ClawClan to want you." She meowed, pausing for a moment, "Either they genuinely want to have their own medicine cat, or they want a cat with the skills to heal them after battle. A battle with LeafClan, most likely." They arrived beside a small stream.

"Or worse. They might want me dead. Without me, LeafClan would have no cat with knowledge of herbs." He meowed quietly. Willowfur tensed beside him.

"I won't let those mange-pelts do that. I promise" She hissed, lashing her tail.

"Thanks, Willowfur. For everything." Amberpool meowed awkwardly. They both fell into silence, looking at the stream's rushing water. After a long pause that felt forever, Amberpool got up, "We should get some rest." He finished.

Willowfur looked up, "Couldn't we rest here… In the forest I mean." She meowed, then explained, "I wouldn't get any sleep back in the camp, because the warrior's den is too drafty right now."

Amberpool nodded, "Well if you can find moss and a nice spot, I don't see a problem, but we'll have to go to the camp to tell Goldenstar when we're leaving." He meowed.

Once Willowfur had hunted down a comfortable spot and gathered moss, she tracked down Amberpool. Half-asleep, Amberpool followed her under the tree's branches and fell asleep. Willowfur rested her tail on his shoulders.


End file.
